Certain conventional data storage systems use the Common Information Model (CIM) to represent elements of a data storage system (e.g., disks, logical unit numbers (LUNs), RAID groups, subsystems, etc.) as objects. These data storage systems are managed remotely by a conventional client application running on a conventional client system across a network. During operation, a user running the conventional client application on the conventional client system can conduct a search for specific CIM objects.
In order for a conventional client to obtain search results, a search request may be manually entered by the conventional client in the form of the CIM Query Language (CQL). The CQL search request is forwarded to the conventional data storage system which conducts the search for specific CIM objects. The conventional client then receives the search results in the form of a table containing data about the desired objects from the conventional data storage system.